Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur watched his team cruise into the playoffs with a shutout win over the New Orleans Saints but admitted there was “some concern” around an injury suffered by wide receiver Christian Watson.
The Packers won 34-0 at Lambeau Field to improve their record to 11-4 and secure a place in the postseason for the fifth time in six years.
How much Watson will play from here on in remains to be seen, though, after he hurt his knee in the second quarter.
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“There’s some concern there, certainly,” LaFleur said. ”We’re going to get some more testing done tomorrow. Hopefully, I’ll have an answer for you tomorrow.”
Watson did return but exited for good in the fourth quarter.
“It definitely hurt right away, but it felt like it was good enough to go back in, so I went back in and it was feeling all right,” Watson said. “But it was just kind of lingering a little bit and I just couldn’t play the type of football I wanted to play, so I just had to shut it down.”
Rizzi – shutout not due to lack of effort
Despite being shutout for just the second time in 22 years, New Orleans interim coach Darren Rizzi refused to criticise his players.
“The day I took over we were on a seven-game losing streak,” Rizzi said. “It would’ve been easier, easy for a lot of players and veteran guys especially, to kind of check out and I’ve never ever felt that. I didn’t feel that today. I thought, to be honest with you, I thought we had a great prep week, we had a great walk-through last night. I felt like we were locked in. We didn’t perform. Sometimes in this league, it’s going to happen.
“We didn’t have a very good performance. I never felt like our guys are looking down the road and not giving effort because of our playoff status. I never felt like that one time during this time I’ve taken over. I didn’t feel like that tonight. I feel like we got outcoached and outexecuted. That’s the way it is.”
